When a massive winter weather event hits an area more familiar with tropical temperatures, thunderstorms and tornadoes, the impacts are often hard to fathom. The recent storm that swept through Entergy’s service territory – disrupting electrical service for approximately 171,200 Entergy customers – brought with it significant ice accumulation and extreme challenges that have slowed our restoration efforts.

Entergy Mississippi is taking to the skies flying drones and helicopters up to 5,000 feet in the air—more than three times the height of the Empire State Building in New York City—to better help scan our region for damages, improving the speed in which we can restore power for our customers. These efforts are part of our team’s continued focus on restoring power after winter weather blanketed significant parts of our service territory with freezing rain and ice last weekend. 

Lingering ice continues to stress vegetation and power infrastructure causing delayed damage as crews work in extremely hazardous conditions. So far, restoration crews across Louisiana and Mississippi have worked diligently to restore power to more than one-third of customers following the severe winter weather system that passed through this weekend.